“Take imperfect action now,” says Angel RIBO, founder of the CEO Confidant and expert in helping corporations expand their business to a global market. In this episode of Sales Lead Dog, Angel talks with Chris about what it really means to learn from your mistakes and move forward.
Angel learned everything he knows from making mistakes and learn from your mistakes. He shares a story about a major multinational corporation he thought he had in the bag — after all, the CEO was also from Spain! But a few cut corners cost him the sale, and it took 5 years to finally snag that major client. Angel admits that as shameful as it is to admit to the mistakes made along the way, it’s the only way to move forward. In his work both as a sales leader and a guide for major companies looking to scale up, doing something is always better than doing nothing. Everything is a learning experience. As long as you are authentic to yourself, you’ll find a way to stay afloat.
You’ll want to check out this energizing talk with Angel RIBO about making mistakes, imposter syndrome, caring for your customer, and so much more.
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Transcript:
Fri, 1/15 3:56PM • 47:46
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
company, sales, potential clients, people, linkedin, business, deal, client, remember, making, conversation, cfo, mistakes, leads, salesperson, decision, learn from your mistakes, crm, online marketer, selling
Speakers of the discussion on learn from your mistake and move forward
Angel RIBO, Christopher Smith
Intro
Welcome to the Sales Lead Dog Podcast hosted by CRM technology and sales process expert Christopher Smith, talking with sales leaders that have separated themselves from the rest of the pack. Listen to find out how the best of the best achieve success with their team and CRM technology. And remember, unless you are the lead dog, the view never changes.
Christopher Smith
Welcome to Sales Lead Dog. Today we have joining us a thought leader, Angel RIBO. Angel, welcome to Sales Lead Dog.
Angel RIBO
Thank you. Thank you very much for allowing me to be here with you and for your, you know, and to your audience obviously that they will be patiently listening to us today.
Christopher Smith
That’s great. So, Angel tell us about yourself and what you do these days.
Angel RIBO
Absolutely. So basically, what I do is both corporate CEOs and established entrepreneurs, they hire me to bridge the gap globally for expansion and exposure. So that means basically they help them accelerate the growth of their businesses through international expansion strategies. The reason why I do that is because I, you know, I originally was born in Barcelona in Spain, I started an international career because I learned English and French and then Portuguese and then you know, I decided to go international and, you know, fast forward, you know, I had, you know, helped more than you know 1500 companies and their C-level executives, making certain you know purchasing decisions. And also then I mean I was working literally more than 30 countries doing that. So, you know, eventually for, for almost five years ago I decided to go from the corporate world to have my own business. And that’s how I ended up doing what I do. Besides that actually, something that played a key role for me to do that was that I decided also to start to start my own charity. It’s called Wisdom for Kids and we help underprivileged kids in Latin America become entrapreneurs using their local resources. I’m very strong on LinkedIn, so you can find me on LinkedIn over there. I you know I’m an influencer there and very active. Always sharing both personal and professional stories. And many of them are sales related stories, so I’m so excited to be here, Chris, thank you.
Christopher Smith
Yeah, no, we’re excited to have you and I love what you’re doing, as an entrepreneur. Anything that facilitates entrepreneurs, especially with, I love it with kids. That’s awesome.
Angel RIBO
Thank you.
Christopher Smith
So tell us about your, your, you know, I gonna start with your switch to being an entrepreneur. That’s a big shift to make. What was that like for you?
Angel RIBO
Yes, I mean it was, obviously when you look back, right, you, you know that you made so many mistakes and you would if you could, you were given another chance, you would definitely do it completely different you know that feeling?
Christopher Smith
Oh yeah.
Angel RIBO
I’m sure you do right. But also I believe that, you know, regardless of where you stand like from any spiritual religious perspective, I think that we are only given the battles that we can really fight and succeed on. Okay, so that wasn’t an exception. So there is always something that happens that keeps you afloat, always, no matter what, you know, so I decided to you know to to leave corporate America after what I mean, almost like 17, 18 years, starting in Europe and then being here in the US. I’m right now, north of Dallas in Texas. And, and it was, the beginning, to be honest, the first, the first thing I can tell you I remember is that I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. I wasn’t sure and I had so many paths, right.
Christopher Smith
Right, right.
Angel RIBO
Before leaving the corporate world I had attended several entrapreneurs, you know online marketers kind of conferences and in order to explore several you know avenues to become a consultant, how to become a coach, how to launch products online, you know how to be a good online marketer. And on top of that, also I would say that I never really reflected on everything that I had done before. So I was full of doubts, with a lot of different possibilities in front of me, and it took me a while to say okay so this is what I’m going to do what I’m going to do it this way, I’m going to go down that path only. You know so, that’s what I remember that. But, you know, definitely, you know, truly at the same as you, if you know if I can learn anybody not to make the same mistakes.
Christopher Smith
Yep.
Angel RIBO
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Christopher Smith
Oh yeah, yeah. So what was that like transitioning where you’re selling for other people, now you’re selling for yourself?
Angel RIBO
Yeah. So number one is making sure that the, the imposter syndrome was not affecting me, right. I remember that it wasn’t until I sat down literally sat down. And when I was when I was telling you before that I had done business in 33, 34 countries, until I, until that very moment, and that was months and months and months after I had started my own entrepreneurial career, I sat down and I started to write down, okay so how many companies have I helped in my life. And I tried to, like, you know, cut them page different spreadsheets from different you know places I had worked and, and done business with and companies and industries. I put them all together. And then I said okay, how many countries, those different companies where are they based. So I started to make a list of different countries. Okay, and then how did I help them. So I help them do this this, this, this, this. When I took stock of that, you know, experience, it was then when I realized, okay, so I might have something to offer.
Christopher Smith
Oh yeah, yeah.
Angel RIBO
I might have something to sell to the other. So, actually, I made, I made the, the, you know, the decision I made the decision of, you know, I’m going to be extremely active on LinkedIn. Okay, so that was my first decision so I haven’t really used networking online before, I was using it like reactively, now I’m going to be proactive and I’m going to make LinkedIn the place where I’m going to conduct all my sales. Before, I don’t remember selling a single thing. No, I mean nothing since the 90s, well I don’t remember when LinkedIn was founded, but until, until 2016, when I you know decided to set up my own company. So that was the first thing. So I I started to see okay, so I’m gonna do this. How do I create an audience, you know, and then I started to learn how to do business on LinkedIn, how to reach out to people, I made so many mistakes, I mean, I mean, crazy things, you know, crazy things it really, you know, obviously, there were people blocking me and you name it, you know, trying to reach out the wrong way and, you know, trying to be artificial, trying not to be me, to be honest, because I was in a, I was in this, if I had to, you had to describe it, in some sense some sort of quicksand. You know that, that you know what to do but you really don’t. And then, you know, one step forward and two steps backwards, all the time but. And then obviously, after, after starting like doing some marketing and marketing, you know, then having the conversations. Right. And how am I going to prepare my own proposals and what are my own proposals going to going to look like. And I have to say, probably one of the mistakes I made was also that I didn’t reach out to the people that could have supported me, people that I could have partnered up with. Oh, what a big mistake, you know, definitely. That was a big mistake. But you know, I’m alive. You know, I, I still have a family, I still have a home. I still have a couple of cars, I still go on holiday, and I vacation from time to time, so it’s not that bad, Chris.
Christopher Smith
Oh yeah. I think a lot of people are afraid to make that jump, but it’s like anything else in life where you’re making a big change like that that you have to be all in. You have to be committed to it, and you have to be committed to success. Which, you know, for being a sales leader, for our listeners, you know, they might might not want to be an entrepreneur. But hey that’s like hey, you know what, I maybe I want to make that transition into sales leadership, or maybe I want to go for that position at another firm that might be a much bigger role than I have today. What should they take from the lessons you’ve learned to motivate them to make that leap?
Angel RIBO
Well, number one, whatever, whatever the route is that they pick is good. Okay, it’s okay. So because we tend to be so hard on ourselves, oh my God. Okay, so whatever decision you take is going to be the right one for you, okay, so that’s number one. Number two if you decide to, you know, to, to make that leap, you know, that change. Then, I would say, just as you said, there’s a mantra I use with all my clients all the time, which is take imperfect action now. Take imperfect action now. That’s my favorite one. So, I would say, you know, there’s no perfect path to where you want to go.
Christopher Smith
Right.
Angel RIBO
But the reality is that the sooner you make certain mistakes, the sooner, you’re gonna get there.
Christopher Smith
Oh yeah, yeah.
Angel RIBO
You know, so there’s in the in the startup world, there’s this concept called the minimum viable product. So any startup, that when they go to launch something, they say okay, so what’s the minimum value in the form of a service or a product I’m going to put together, so that the market is gonna react positively and then we’ll start to acquire my, acquiring my services or my product, right. So this is so much more simple than what you think. You just have to reach out to the people that you already know, or that you know people potential business partners and go to them and say, “Hey, I just started, I just got out, you know the corporate world, I want to do this. Would you be willing just to have a coffee, you know, over coffee conversation, and tell me that makes sense? And if you will be willing to tell me your feedback about this?” It’s as simple as that. In a week you can have 5, 10 conversations like that and already know what makes sense and what doesn’t make sense, and I started having those conversations with potential clients. Again, you know, I was talking about making mistakes on LinkedIn and sending the wrong messages. If you genuinely, if you genuinely even if it’s people that you don’t know, if you genuinely reach out to people and ask them for help, don’t, don’t explain them your life. Okay, just, “I need your help because I just left the corporate world, and I would like to, you know, proof test something that I will I want to change, to launch to the market.” I tell you, maybe it’s not going to be a 50% but there’s going to be a 10%, 20% of people that are going to say yes, and they will be able to meet, they will be willing to meet over coffee with you to discuss that. I mean, and the ones that have been there, you know, the ones like you and me that we have been there. Oh my god. Do we want to help other people not to make the same mistakes?
Christopher Smith
Oh man, yeah.
Angel RIBO
Of course. Exactly, exactly. So, you know, I think that’s the most important thing. And again, you don’t have to wait. I remember that one of my excuses was, I mean, we look for so many excuses. As soon as I left the corporate world, and you know my company helped me and put me, you know, they gave me a very nice package and everything, and they gave me an outplacement company to work with right to find another job. Right. I remember being the only one. I mean, very high level executives of the same meeting blah blah blah. I was the only one in the entire room that wanted to be an entrapreneur.
Christopher Smith
Right.
Angel RIBO
The only one. Every single meeting. So I will have a meeting, one or two meetings per week with them with other executives looking for a position. I was the only one that wanted to be an entrepreneur, the rest wanted to have another job another gig, which is good. Again, it’s it’s good it’s perfect. And again, there’s nothing wrong, but the sooner you start going down that path,
Christopher Smith
Yes. Yes.
Angel RIBO
The better for you. Because you need reinforcement, and you need reinforcement and you need to learn from your mistakes. Nobody will believe in their lessons you need you need to be yourself in front of the reality that you are going to be, you know, acting on. And the reality is you before other companies that want or might want what you are going to offer to them.
Christopher Smith
Yeah. And I liked your advice just to work your network. Seek out help, ask for help from people in your network to say hey, I’m thinking about making this transition, be it you know maybe it’s a new job, maybe it’s not to be an entrepreneur, but there’s still a lot of people that have done the same thing already that you know that or say hey, whatever you do, don’t do this, I did that. It was a dismal failure, you know, try this instead. You know, it’s it, you can’t buy that kind of help.
Angel RIBO
Exactly. And also something else that I didn’t mention but something that would have helped me a lot is probably to ask for help, even to pay someone to coach me that process.
Christopher Smith
Yes.
Angel RIBO
You know there’s coaches out there. There’s people that have done this. There’s people that help you get from a position of the corporate towards becoming a successful entrepreneur.
Christopher Smith
Yep.
Angel RIBO
There’s people doing that. Oh my god, I wish I had taken the decision, I had made the decision of someone, having someone, hire someone to do that for me.
Christopher Smith
Yeah.
Angel RIBO
I mean, honestly. The only resource, which is a scarce in our lives is time. That’s the only one is time. We will always get money and anything else, but time goes by. So, start asking for help, hire someone that can help you bridge that gap bridge that gap to the first dollar to the first purchase order, you know have someone help you get there. And maybe the only piece of advice of who to, who to hire, I mean there’s literally thousands of coaches out there that can help you do that, but look for someone that’s made a lot of mistakes.
Christopher Smith
That’s great. So when you’re working with your clients. Is there a common struggle, or, or pain point that they have that hold them back from success.
Angel RIBO
Yes, I mean it’s definitely I mean they don’t feel comfortable selling. I mean, it’s very I mean they know they have a valuable proposition. Some of them. Some of them have a solution and there’s a problem that exists. Others have a solution but maybe the problem doesn’t exist or is not big enough, it doesn’t matter. That’s why we are there to talk and we’re there to discuss and how to make that value proposition really viable in the market but still, you know, I think that that’s the most important thing, to make sure that I help them do something that they make they they’re just feeling comfortable, not everybody feels comfortable asking for the purchase order. And needless to say, not everybody knows how to go to the market, which is another thing, right? Now that’s why I always say it’s expansion, and exposure. Expansion and exposure. So expansion is developing business, but exposure means, what are all those marketing tools or strategies and tactics that are going to help you to get to that place, to get to these people that may hire you or buy your products. And that’s, that’s what they have in common. Let me add something to this if I may, Chris. Because, obviously, every time we talk, right now when, you know, when we’re having this conversation with you, I am attracting a specific, a specific kind of person, right. I’m, I’m attracting a specific kind of entrapreneur, a specific kind of, you know, C level executive, I don’t attract everybody. I don’t, and that’s okay. You know I know what I’m saying. And I’m being me, and I know that I’m going to attract certain persona or a certain avatar, and that’s okay you know. The world is full of people that need my services and it’s the same with you. And it’s the same with you, Chris. And it’s the same with everybody that wants to go from corporate to becoming an entrepreneur. You know, we are, we are unique in, in our lives, we are unique in our experiences, and we are unique in the way that we can deliver that that value for potential clients.
Christopher Smith
Yep.
Angel RIBO
That’s why we never you know, that’s a conversation you’ve had probably hundreds if not 1000s of times. I remember when I was training, my sales force, my, the new sales reps will come to me and say, “Hey, okay so where am I going to find leads?” Oh, that’s an interesting conversation. So, so you know we will tell them okay, so this is the source of leads and I’m sure that your Sales VP or your sales manager is going to give you a whole bunch of leads and, and then there will always be someone in that sales training, someone raising their hands and saying, “I mean what if I end, if I end, if I finish my list of leads and nobody, nobody has wanted to give me an appointment.” I said okay, that’s interesting. Let me, I’m gonna I’m gonna do that myself. I’m gonna, I’m gonna expose myself with you in front of the rest of the class, right. So, if you ever finish your, all your lists of leads. I commit to yourself, I commit to you that I will be sitting down with you for an entire day and we will both look for additional leads or lists of leads online or in any other, you know, institutions that could provide you with potential clients of your business. Obviously, the message I was trying to convey is, is it that there are not enough leads or potential clients to you or is it that maybe the work that you’re doing, is not good enough? Maybe the questions that you’re asking, maybe, maybe the phone calls, maybe the places where you’re looking, right. The reality is, Chris, that nobody ever came back to me, you know, since the 90s, asking for lists of additional leads right, nobody. You know, so, at the end of the day, obviously, you know, we all, we all have to learn somewhere we all have to start you know with inside sales or whatever telemarketer marketing or whatever that is.
Christopher Smith
Yeah. What’s your craziest sales story from your career?
Angel RIBO
Well there’s plenty, but I have to say the one that they will never forget. So this is the deal okay. So, this is a multinational company. They’re all over the world, what they do is they do electric motors, motors, electric motors.
Christopher Smith
Yeah.
Angel RIBO
Okay. Like all sizes. They’re huge. Okay, they are originally from Brazil. Okay. And they were basically opening a huge room. They had just acquired the new massive manufacturing plant in a specific place in Mexico. Okay, so the headquarters, the headquarters were using a specific technology, right, which was actually the technology that I was representing, okay. So I was covering the entire the entire territory in at that time, and they said okay wonderful so you know, we’re just going to just acquire this company, so it’s going to be an easy sale, right. So they just acquired these additional company here in Mexico, in Brazil. The standard technology is our technology so it’s gonna be a piece of cake. It’s gonna be a piece of cake, right it’s, you know, they already know the advantages, blah blah blah. Everything, alright. To make things worse, I am originally from Spain, as I said before, I was in Mexico, and it was doing that, that that wasn’t a direct sale for me, so I was doing that indirectly through one of my business partners, okay, one of my channel partners to say to say it properly. Alright, so I said, you know, I mean, just go there, do all the groundwork and then whenever you need me to, you know, for the final stages of the negotiation I show up. Well it was even worse was that the CEO and general manager of that company in Mexico. He was also from Spain. So I said, Oh my God, we will be able to talk about soccer, and we will be able to have a nice meal together. And, you know, I mean, so, you name it. You know when you already have this image in your brain.
Christopher Smith
It’s lining up, everything’s lining up.
Angel RIBO
Exactly. Yeah, what are the chances of this Brazilian company buying a company in Mexico and the and the CEO and GM, he’s an Spaniard. Right. Okay, so we started this, you know, you started a sales process, blah blah blah. And then I started receiving like, you know, symptoms. Right. I mean, hey, there’s a strong team, they have like they had something like a 35, 40 engineering team and those were like, you know, each one represented X 1000s of dollars of that particular proposal, right.
Christopher Smith
Yep.
Angel RIBO
So, but suddenly from, you know, the sales director of that partner, channel partner of mine. “Hey, there is a strong group, which are using a completely different technology. These guys have never used our technology, they use another one. And they’re very strong and they really, they really believe it’s much more important,” right. So, I have to say that unfortunately we took shortcuts. We didn’t analyze the decision process properly, we didn’t analyze the decision criteria properly, we didn’t, we didn’t have enough, enough conversations with the economic buyer with the CEO, with the GM, so we took so many shortcuts. So many shortcuts that we ended up losing the deal.
Christopher Smith
Oh my.
Angel RIBO
And it was several hundreds of 1000s of dollars. Yeah, several hundreds of, so I will never forget the name of that company. Obviously, I’m trying to be extremely respectful and not disclose the name of the company. But I have to tell you something, with the director of sales of that channel partner, we became friends, because we were badly defeated, badly defeated. And obviously, all the company knew about deal, about that deal. You know when that deal has so much visibility inside the company, that everybody’s expecting us to win it.
Christopher Smith
Yeah.
Angel RIBO
So we had to go back and say, “What? Oh my gosh. Yeah. We lost the deal. We lost the deal.” Well to recover that account, it took to us, four or five more years.
Christopher Smith
Wow.
Angel RIBO
Four or five more years to get it back to have, you know, to perform, you know, enough proofs of concept there and make sure that we will do the right benchmarks of technology against technology, blah blah blah. And I guarantee you, we never took any other shortcut, you know we didn’t, we didn’t take any, any other chances in any other deal. I tell you that.
Christopher Smith
Oh I bet. Dealing with rejection is a big part of sales and being a sales leader and modeling that, you know, how you handle rejection. I think it’s important for a sales leader leader to model that for their team. What’s your recommendations for sales leaders in terms of how they create the proper perspective in their sales team, especially the younger people that are getting started in sales?
Angel RIBO
I would say number one is that for your potential clients, future clients, you call them suspects, leads, prospects, whatever, depending on the maturity, but their perspective is their reality, don’t forget that. Don’t forget that. So, your reality is not their reality. Okay, so that’s the number one thing so that what the number one thing I would like to say is, you know, this is, this is a, this is a marathon, okay, so just you have to learn from your mistakes. And you know, don’t, you know don’t burn your bridges. It’s a matter of time, you have to learn how to do this. This is as anything else, as playing tennis or swimming, as any, driving, as anything else. This is a, you know, this is a, a long, you know, a long run. Okay, so it’s gonna take some time for you to perfect whatever you want to do. And remember, be yourself all the time. That will be my second one. Be yourself. Don’t pretend to be anybody else, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have to be mentored, you don’t have to receive lessons. No. Okay, but be yourself because if you’re not yourself, you’re going to be, you know, you know, sidetracked wherever that is, and you’re gonna feel saying, I should have done what my gut feel was telling me, okay. So just be, you know, just be there. And third, the third thing is always have, always have the tough conversations. Don’t hold anything to you. Always have those, those tough conversations. So, what I’m trying to say is always make sure that whatever decision, whatever proposal you’re making, whatever conversation, it’s, you know, it’s it’s for the good of your client.
Christopher Smith
Right.
Angel RIBO
It’s for the good of your client. Okay so, genuinely care about what is important, what is important for the client. Remember one thing, as I said before, perception is their reality. They want something, but you believe as a salesperson that they need something else.
Christopher Smith
Right.
Angel RIBO
Okay, so, it’s what they want. It’s what they want. So remember, it’s their reality. So you have to be there all the time. Okay, so those will be my, you know, most important you know pieces of advice. And, and again it’s, you learn a lot, I mean I learned from a desk making phone calls. That’s how I learned. That’s how I personally learned. I didn’t even, you know it took me more than a year to start making, you know, sales appointments with the field reps, but it is what it is, it is, you know, you have to learn from you mistakes, and we have to make mistakes,
Christopher Smith
You have to struggle. That’s right.
Angel RIBO
Yeah.
Christopher Smith
So let’s transfer our discussion here to talk about CRM. When it comes to CRM and your career in sales, did you love it or do you hate it?
Angel RIBO
I loved it, and I loved it because it helped me to finally structure myself and organize myself. The real, can I use, can I use a brand or can I use it? Or I’d rather not.
Christopher Smith
We try to stay away from that, just talk in general terms, we don’t want to know favor one over another.
Angel RIBO
Oh no it’s okay, so, you know, just, you know, going, going back in time in the late 90s there was one system that was really like the number one that everybody would use and everybody would use that one. I remember when the company I was working with was over a billion dollars in revenue, and they decided to buy that, right. That was a multi-million dollar deal that they had to invest on. I remember it was like a savior. I mean, I remember, even though it was complicated, like a lots of fields and things and interactions. It was like, oh my God, great. We have a way like to put all that information and to keep that information in that same place, so that it’s going to help me have a better possibility to follow up on those deals. Because at the end of the day, following up is everything, you know, what every single industry says that the you know, the millions are in the follow up. You bet. And CRMs really help you be organized That’s, for me, that’s that was, I mean I remember my first time ever using that particular CRM. And if I always use different C, I mean, after that I used CRMs consistently.
Christopher Smith
Yes.
Angel RIBO
So it’s the peace of mind that you say again. People, most, a lot of people see it as a way to control, which which I understand and which I agree, you know, you you need to control your sales force, you need to have some sort of some level of accountability with your sales force. I mean I get that, but it’s still, it’s a help, it’s something that’s gonna help you it’s part of your support system, and you need, you need support systems to excel in sales.
Christopher Smith
Yeah, I think it’s a great tool for salespeople that, because everybody goes into slumps, and if you, if that, when that happens, the sales leader can use the information in CRM, to say, hey, look I see you’re doing this here. Have you thought about maybe trying this? You know, but if you don’t have that information in CRM, how is the leader, the, you know, be able to coach effectively? Because they have no insight as to what they’ve been doing or what’s going on.
Angel RIBO
Exactly and you know. And to your point, you know some people don’t like to be controlled. Some people feel like, you know, I’m the Top Gun here I don’t need anybody to overload what I’m doing.
Christopher Smith
Right.
Angel RIBO
I mean, with all due respect, you know, we belong to an organization.
Christopher Smith
That’s right.
Angel RIBO
The final goal of that organization is to pay back to the owners, to the investors, to pay back you know, to the shareholder, to give that value additional value to the shareholders, They invested their money, they invested their time, they invested their wealth in making that company successful. You have a job because of them. So anything that you do, which come, you know, is going against that, that contradicts that, I regret to say it’s not right.
Christopher Smith
That’s right.
Angel RIBO
It’s not right. The end goal of any organization is to increase shareholder value, no matter what. And you as a salesperson, you have to be aware that every business decision that you make has an impact. And a financial implication, you know, has a financial implication in the company and in the profitability of the company. So you’re part of that structure. I understand that you like to, you know, sell big and close these big massive deals and great revenue, but okay, so what are the implications of closing that deal? First, as I said before, for the client, is it going to you know because in the moment that you close a sale, remember, it’s good for you because you get the revenue but it’s a problem in the financial statements, right. It’s, remember, you are a problem for your client until your client starts to recover the investment. Remember that.
Christopher Smith
That’s right.
Angel RIBO
And it’s the same for your company, so okay you get the revenue but who has to fulfill that order? Your entire organization behind you has to fulfill the order. Did you take everything into consideration so that you will be able to profitably fulfill that order for your client? These are the kinds of things that you have to take into consideration every time you close a sale.
Christopher Smith
Yeah, I could not have said that better, Angel. That is so, that’s one of the discussions I love to have when we engage with a client is okay, what happens when that deal’s won? What, is that being supported by your CRM? Is the information in your CRM to support the team that downstream that as you said, they now have to take care of that customer, they have to own that relationship and, and make sure they achieve the ROI on their investment? So important.
Angel RIBO
Absolutely. I mean, in all honesty, I mean, if we want to keep our teams accountable, you know, we have to be, and we want them all of them to be engaged, right. I mean we have to educate them. I mean that’s very honestly I mean you you know because you you sell every single day. So, you know that. I mean, I think that having those financial implications conversation is like the elephant in the room.
Christopher Smith
Yes.
Angel RIBO
It’s like the elephant in the room. Who feels really comfortable? I mean, have you ever felt this, let me let me ask you a question. Chris, have you ever been in that situation in which you’re trying to close a deal, you’re in the negotiation table, and suddenly, the CFO of your client shows up? Oh my God, you are with the fingers like this, crossed fingers saying, “I pray to God that the questions from the CFO are not going to be that, are going to be that difficult so I can still answer them, and they will still be interested in doing business with me.”
Christopher Smith
Yes.
Angel RIBO
Because if we, because if we get into, you know if he pulls up his financial statements and he starts going on, you’re going like, okay, so this and this and this and this, and he starts making these difficult questions. Oh my God, you might even have an MBA, but even if you have an MBA, how long ago did you forget all the financial principles,
Christopher Smith
Oh yeah, yeah.
Angel RIBO
That will eventually allow you to understand what the CFO is going to say? But you still want to win the bill right. So, this is exactly what we are, so we have to be humble, and we have to receive the education in order to be able to you know be engaged in our in our company, be aligned with everybody else, and then we can be kept accountable.
Christopher Smith
Yep, no, I love it. So Angel, we’re coming up on our time here on on Sales Lead Dog. If people want to connect with you, what’s the best way for them to reach out and connect?
Angel RIBO
Thank you, the best way for, for them to connect with me is definitely to go and send me an email, it’s very simple like my name it’s [email protected], so it’s [email protected]. I’m very active on LinkedIn, very, very active. So you can you know reach out to me, Angel Ribo, my brand is The CEO Confidant, The CEO Confidant. So you can go to LinkedIn, you will find me very easily. You know, either my team or myself are going to answer your questions, your emails, your messages on LinkedIn, we are very, very proactive in engaging with everybody. And it will be a pleasure obviously to serve you.
Christopher Smith
Yeah, well it’s been great talking with you, Angel. I’m glad we got to finally connect and talk, this has been terrific. Thank you.
Angel RIBO
Thank you. Likewise. Thank you for the opportunity, Chris, obviously and thank you everybody. Thank you to all the audience listening to us today.
Christopher Smith
Awesome.
Outro
As we end this discussion on Sales Lead Dog, be sure to subscribe to catch all our episodes on social media. Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. Watch the videos on YouTube, and you can also find our episodes on our website at Empellorcrm.com/salesleaddog. Sales Lead Dog is supported by Empellor CRM, delivering objectively better CRM for business guaranteed.
Quotes:
- “There is no perfect path to where you want to go but the reality is the sooner you make certain mistakes the sooner you are going to get there.” (10:59-11:10)
Links:
Angel RIBO – The CEO Confidant | SpeakerHub
The CEO Confidant (TM) powered by Divine Human Ventures: Overview | LinkedIn
Angel RIBO LinkedIn
Empellor CRM Website
If you have any question on how Empellor CRM can help you? Contact Christopher Smith
Podcast production and show notes provided by FIRESIDE Marketing
